Falls, slips and trips are among the most common accidents leading to injuries for the elderly. This is particularly true around the home while traveling across structures that are more difficult to traverse, such as stairways. Stairways present particular dangers, because the elderly are forced to lift their legs more than they normally would. Because of the added height of the person climbing, the risk of damage from a fall on a staircase is greater as well. Further, the danger of falling on staircases causes many who own homes to avoid staircases, and therefore avoid using multiple stories within their own home. This lowers the potential for exercise among the elderly, and reduces opportunities for contact with people outside the home.
Many devices exist in the prior art for assisting the elderly in climbing or descending staircases. The vast majority of these devices lack meaningful adjustments for users, so that not only must a user, for example, grasp a device at a fixed level that cannot be adjusted for their personal use, but that level is the same for users ascending and descending stairs. That means that a user may reach upwards to grasp the device when ascending stairs, making it difficult to hold for an extended period of time due to difficulty in extending arms upwards. It also means that the same user may have to reach downwards to grasp the same device when descending stairs, causing the user to hunch over, damaging posture and creating additional danger due to the user traversing the staircase in an unnatural position.
In one example, the device shown in GB 2440387 provides a bar for gripping that extends horizontally across a staircase at the height of a handrail. Similar issues plague the device of U.S. Pat. No. 7,870,695. Other devices require complicated and expensive installations, or lack the stability required. Some such devices are integrated into canes, or walkers, but those devices lack the stability possibly by fixing a device relative to the space or structure being traversed.
Maintaining stability and proper posture are critical for the comfort, health, and safety of users, while maintaining proper posture can also ease strain on the back and legs, among other stressed body parts. Further advantages may be provided using add on components to, for example, maintain trays to allow users to grasp grips with both hands instead of using one hand to carry an item or to maintain a drink or food in a stable position.
What is needed is a new type of support device for assisting a user in traversing some distance or structure, such as a staircase, while maintain proper posture in both ascending and descending such a staircase, without requiring substantial adjustments between uses. Such a support device should be stable, simple, and provide comfort, safety, and other benefits for a user.